Sales and marketing

Promote your business

Promoting your business is essential if you want potential customers to know you exist. But where do you start? Personal recommendations can be one of the most effective forms of publicity. This is why you must ensure your customers are left satisfied every time they deal with your business.

Other promotional options include advertising, direct mail (online and offline), public relations (PR) and networking. Many small businesses are now using social media and networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, too.

Devise a marketing plan

Marketing should be part of your everyday business culture, right from the moment you decide to start up. Having a marketing plan can increase your chances of success, but it doesn’t need to be complex, just something that sets out your goals and strategy, structures your efforts and enables measurement.

Market research enables you to identify those you want to sell to (your ‘target market’) or those most likely to buy from you. Segmenting customers into distinct groups enables you to finely tune your marketing efforts.

Ahead of launch, you must make potential customers aware you’re about to start a new business. Having work or sales lined up can help you get your business off to a flying start.

Focus on your product's benefits

Drawing attention to your unique selling proposition (USP) could also help your cause. This requires explaining what makes your business special.

Target the right customers

Focusing on your target market’s habits will help you decide how best to reach them. There’s no point in advertising in a glossy magasine that your target market don't read or advertising online if potential customers ‘don’t surf’. Advertising in a local paper, handing out flyers on the high street or doing a door-to-door leaflet drop might be much more effective.

Simple forms of advertising can be highly effective, low cost or even free. These include simply getting a sign painted on your van, putting a card up in your local newsagent's window, creating a Facebook fan page or starting a Twitter feed. You could even strike up mutual recommendation agreements with other small businesses.

Stay close to customers

Simply meeting potential customers is often the most effective way to promote your business. Networking can also generate sales.

Word of mouth is the best form of advertising - but it is earned, not paid for. Satisfied customers can be your best advocates, which is why customers’ needs should be satisfied every time. Much will depend on the quality of your products or services, of course, but how you deal with customer enquiries or complaints can be just as important.

If relevant to your type of business, simply following up sales with a brief courtesy call a few weeks later can go down very well. It also provides the opportunity to remind customers about your business. You could even offer them a reward for recommending your business to others, possibly a small discount of future purchases.

Refine your marketing

Promoting any business involves some trial and error. This is why you need to put in place a system for measuring the success of your marketing methods, which could be as simple as asking each new customer how they heard of you or including a promotion code for specific campaigns.

If something hasn’t worked, find out why and don’t repeat the mistake. In future, you can concentrate your resources on more effective methods.